Laura ParodiAddress: Piazza della Giuggiola 1i3

16125 Genoa, ltalytelephone: +39 010 2514144 - mobile: +39 338 4688300email: laurae.parodi@gmail.com

Independent ScholarCurrently Vice-Leader of Team 5 in the European Science Foundation Project COMST(Comparative Oriental Manuscript Studies) (http://www.esf.org/index.php?id=6247)

Education:

1999 Ph. D. in History of Indian and East Asian Art - University of Genoa (ltaly)Dissertation (in ltalian): Between'Timurid Classicism'and Assimilation: Mughal FuneraryArchitecture and its Connection with the Development of Mughal Dynastic ldeology

1994 MA (Laurea) - University of Genoa (ltaly)MA Thesis (in ltalian): lmperial Mughal Garden-Tombs (Honours: summa cum laude)

Previous Positions:

2011-12 Research Associate, Harvard University (Gambridge, MA)Research in preparation of a Muqarnas Supplement on early Mughal ceremonial (incollaboration with Wheeler M. Thackston); delivered a public lecture

2010-11 Aga Khan Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard University (Cambridge, MA)Researched the mid-16th century Mughal scriptorium and atelier in Kabul (in preparation fora book); delivered a public lecture

Aga Khan Postdoctoral Fellow, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge,MA)Reviewed the historiography of lslamic gardens; taught a seminar on Mughal Gardens andLandscapes: History, Heritage, and Design; delivered a public lecture

2009-2010 Gollege Lecturer in lslamic Painting, School of Art History and Gultural Policy,University Gollege DublinTaught two undergraduate modules; Writings on Art (a survey of Western art historiography)and lslamic Art; an undergraduate seminar rn lslamic Painting (in collaboration with theChester Beatty Library) and a graduate seminar on The lslamic City

2008 Research Officer, Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford(Oct-Dec) Launched a project for advanced technical investigation of Mughal paintings in collaboration

with the Los Angeles County Museum of Arf (publication details below)

2007-2008 DepaÉmental Lecturer in lslamic AÉ and Archaeology.Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of OxfordDeveloped part of syllabus and overall course structure; provided most undergraduate andgraduate teaching, all tutorials and the related administration; contributed some graduatesuperuision; convened fhe Portfolio of Practical Work for M.Phil. students (in collaborationwith the Ashmolean Museum) and paft' of the Graduate Research Seminar,' taught ase minar on Gardens in the lslamic World; organised an international conference

2000-2007 Instructor in lslamic Art and Archaeology, Faculty of Arts, University of Genoa (ltaly)Developed syllabus and overall course structure; administered all grades; provided graduatesupervision and administration; sat in various committees; designed and taught severalpostgraduate seminars on lslamic and Asian Art

2004-2006 Instructor in lslamic Art, Facult! of Languages, "Carlo Bo" University of Urbino (ltaly)Developed syllabus and overall course structure; administered all grades

Laura Parodi

Grants and Awards:

2013

2011

2010

2008

1999-2001

2009

The article "Tracing the History of a Mughal Album Page in the Collection of the Los AngelesCounty Museum of Art" was one of seven finalists in the ARIAH Prize competition for onlinepubl ish in g (http://www.a riah. i nfo/on I i n eprize. htm | )

Awarded a Hamad bin Khalifa Travel Grant to attend the conference God is Beautiful; HeLoves Beauty: the Object in lslamic Art and Culture (Doha, Qatar, 29-31 October, 2001) andconduct research on the collections of the Museum of lslamic Art in Doha.

Awarded an Aga Khan Program for lslamic Architecture at MIT (AKPIA@MIT)Postdoctoral Fellowship for the research project The chahàrbàgh reconsidered: acomparative inquiry on late Timurid, early Safavid and early Mughalsources.

Awarded an Aga Khan Program for lslamic Architecture at Harvard University(AKPIA@Harvard) Postdoctoral Fellowship for the research project Humayun's patronageof painting: a reappraisal.

Nominated to the Philip Leverhulme Prize by the Faculty of Oriental Studies, University ofOxford (shortlisted).

Awarded three successive Annual Grants for Young Researchers by the University ofGenoa, with fieldwork in Pakistan, India, China (Xinjiang), Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, andTajikistan, as well as research on collections in Turkey, Europe, and the U.S.A.

Previous Participation in International Projects:

2006-2009 Participant in the project North Indian Literary Culture 1450-1650 (SOAS, University ofLondon), approaching the study of literature, music and the visual arts from a multilingualand multidisciplinary perspective.

Participant in a European project (PlC-lnterreg lll / MEDOCC), led by the University of Aix-Marseille, France, as member of a team developing a Learning Management System and apilot eLearning Project on Water, Territory and Society. Activities comprised: formationand co-ordination of the team members responsible for multilingual indexation and review ofmaterials collected and produced by the research teams (project languages: French, ltalian,Spanish and Arabic); translation into French of elearning units; creation of some elearningunits; consulting and technical support.

Participant in the International Cooperation Agreement between the University of Genoa andthe Université Libanaise in Beirut.

2001-2004

1999-2005

Recently Organised Symposia / Panels:

2010 Convener of panel iA Codicological Approach to the Practices and Theories ofManuscript Gollecting.' 2nd Biennial Symposium of the Historians of lslamic ArfAssociation (HIAA) (Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.,21-23 October).

Joint organiser (with James Allan) of the International Gonference Art, Patronage andSociety in the Muslim Deccan from the 14h Century to the Present Day (St. Antony'sCollege, Oxford, 4-6 July).

Joint organiser (with Francesca Orsini) of the Study Day Image, Object and Context(SOAS, University of London, 26 October).

2008

2007

Laura Parodi

Recently Delivered Lectures and Gonference Papers:

2012 Participation in the workshop Ihe Oriental Book: The Shaping of the Page, the Scribe andthe llluminator at Work; The Making of Oriental Bookbindings and their Conservation.(Centre de Conservation du Livre, Arles, France,9-13 October).

"Chahàrbàghs, Palaces, and Mughal Court Routine in the Sixteenth Century." AKPIALecture Series 2011-2012 (Harvard University, l9April).

Participation in the workshop Circulation licite et illicite des collections des bibliothèques:aspecfs historiques et juridiques. Université Paul Monet (Sceaux) - Paris Sud (12 January)

2011 "The lslamic Paradise Garden: Myths and Realities." AKPIA Lecture Series 2010-2011(Massachusetts lnstitute of Technology, 14 March).

2010 "Tracing the Protagonists of an Elusive Atelier: Painters at Humayun's Court, Kabul, c. 1545-1 556." AKP lA Lectu re Series 201 0-201 1 (Harvard University, 4 November).

"The Kabul Atelier under Humayun (ca. 1550-54 CE): Perspectives from Codicology." 6rh

lnternational Conference on lslamic Manuscripts (University of Cambridge, UK, 8-10 July).

"Some Mughal Album Pages and their Multiple Avatars." International ConferenceCodicology and History of the Manuscript in Arabic scnpf (Madrid, Centro de CienciasHumanas y Sociales / Consejo Superior de lnvestigaciones Cientificas, 27-29 May).

"Tracing the Rise of Portraiture in the Timurid Aftermath: the Early Steps of the MughalSchool under Humayun." International Conference Portraiture in South Asla (NationalPortrait Gallery / SOAS, London, 21-22May).

2009 "lslamic Art and World Art: Why Teach lslamic Art in lreland Today?" symposium tslamic Atiin lreland Today (Humanities Institute of lreland, Dublin, 18 September).

"Between Kabul, fabriz, and Hindustan: The Place of Humayun's Patronage in thePersianate World." (Department of Indian and Sanskrit Studies, Harvard University, 4March).

2008 "lmperial Mughal Portraits after Shah Jahan." International Conference lndo-Muslim Culturesin Transition (The University of California at lrvine, 2 November).

"Bringing an Early Mughal Court to Life: New Approaches to Visual and Textual Evidence."(The University of California at lrvine, 31 October).

"Bidri Ware and the New Mughal Order." International Conference Aft, Patronage andSociety in the Muslim Deccan from the 14'h Century to the Present Day (University of Oxford,4 July).

"Depictions of Calligraphers and Painters under Akbar and Jahangir." InternationalWorkshop Munshis, Pandits and Record-Keepers (University of Oxford, 13 June).

"The lslamic Garden." Postgraduate Diploma in Asian Arf (SOAS, University of London, 11

June).

"Painting in India: lmperial and Princely Courts." (in ltalian) University of Milan Main Hall(organised by FAI - Fondo per l'Ambiente ltaliano,6 February).

Laura Parodi

Memberships:

2009- Member of the Historians of lslamic Art Association (HIAA)Member of The lslamic Manuscript Association (TIMA)

2009-2012 Member of College Arts Association (GAA)

2005-2008 Vice-president of ltalindia, an association grouping ltalian scholars of South Asia

2001-2007 Member of the Téthys network for an lnter-Mediterranean Virtual University

Further Qualifications / Training :

2011 Attended an Intensive lslamic Godicology Short Course led by Frangois Déroche andorganised by The lslamic Manuscript Association (Cambridge, UK)

2007-08 Received training in Presentation and Delivery, Powerpoint Skills, Project Management,Team Management, and Resource Management at the University of Oxford

2003 Certified eLearning expeÉ by the University of the Balearic lslands, Europe's leadingeLearning institution

Other Professional Activities:

2010 Advisor to George Michell for his book Mughal Architecture & Gardens (with Amrit Pasricha'sphotographs) (Woodbridge, Suffolk, 2011).

2006 Consultant to the Frigerio Design Group on their project of a new seat for the Organisation ofthe lslamic Conference in Jeddah (shorilisted) (http://www.frigeriodesign.iVmovie.html).

2003-2009 Founding member and member of the editorial board of SuonoSonda, for several yearsItaly's leading contemporary music review.

2002 Co-author, with Raffaello Bisso, of La Civiltà della Fame (Starvation Civilization), a book onthe global food market written on the occasion of the 2002 FAO meeting in Rome. To thisday an active campaigner for sustainable agriculture and food education (activities comprise:public talks; the organisation of academic symposia and outreach events; collaboration withvarious blogs, listserves and like-minded organisations in various countries).

1992- Environment conservation activist with LIPU (ltalian partner of Birdlife International). Formany years active in bird rescue and rehabilitation. Contributed to several publications onItalian fauna and flora, birdwatching and environment education. Also led field trips anddelivered lectures in schools, at the Museum of Natural Historv in Genoa and in the contextof continuing education programmes.

Languages: Native ltalian speaker.Fully fluent in English and French; fluent in German.Good reading knowledge of Arabic, Persian and Spanish.Reading knowledge of Latin and Portuguese.Basic knowledge of Classical Hebrew, Sanskrit and Russian.

Laura Parodi

Forthcoming Books:

(ed.), Ihe Visual World of Muslim lndia: The Art, Culture and Society of the Deccan in the Early ModernEra. Forthcoming in September 2013 from l.B. Tauris, London, with a Foreword by Richard M.Eaton. (also contributing a chapter titled: "Bidri Ware and the New Mughal Order")

(with Wheeler M. Thackston), A Sourcebook of Early Mughal Ceremonial. Muqarnas Supplement 14.Forthcoming in 2014.

Picturing Kabul and a Golden Age - Early Mughal Painting and Cultural Policy in the Reign ofHumayun, c. 1530-56. (provisionaltitle) (two academic publishers have expressed an interest)

Forthcoming Articles / Book Ghapters:

"Paradise or pragmatism? An overview of Mughal religious architecture." Cambridge History of WorldReligious Architecture. Richard Etlin (ed.). Cambridge and New York.

(with Giovanni Verri), "Workshop Practice and Infrared Inquiry. A Case Study: Princes of the House ofTimur." Journal of lslamic Sfudies.

Select Prior Publications:

(with Bruce Wannell), "The Earliest Datable Mughal Painting: an Allegory of the Celebrations for Akbar'sCircumcision at the Sacred Spring of Khwaja Seh Yaran near Kabul (1546 AD) [Staatsbibliothek zuBerlin - Preussrscher Kulturbesitz, Libr. Pict.4117, fol. 15A1." Asianart.com, November 201'1(http://www.asianart.com/articles/parod i/i ndex. html ).

"Darbàrs in transition: the many facets of the Mughal imperial image after Shah Jahan as seen in theex-Binney collection at the San Diego Museum of Art." Indo-Muslim Cultures in Transition, ed.Karen B. Leonard and Alka Patel. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2011: 87-110.

"Of Shaykhs, BIbIs and Begims: sources on early Mughal marriage connections and the patronage ofBabur's tomb." Proceedings of the 6th European Conference of lranian Sfudles (Vienna, 2007), ed.Maria Szuppe, Anna Krasnowolska and Claus Pedersen. Cahiers de Studia lranica 45 (2011), 121-38.

"Two pages from the Late Shahjahan Album." Ars Orientalis, Vol. 40 (2011):267-94.

"Portraits and Albums." Treasures of the Aga Khan Museum - Arts of the Book and Calligraphy in thelslamic World (exhibition catalogue). lstanbul, 2010: 308-1 5.

"From tooy to darbàr. Materials for a History of Mughal Audiences and their Depictions." Ratnamala(Garland of Gems), ed. Joachim K. Bautze and Rosamaria Cimino. Ravenna, 2O1O:51-76.

"Princes of the House of Timur." Cat. No. 1. The lndian Porirait 1560-1860, ed. Rosemary Crill andKapil Jariwala. London: National Portrait Gallery, 2010: 50-51.

(with Frank D. Preusser, Jennifer M. Porter, and Yosi Pozeilov), "Tracing the History of a Mughal AlbumPage in the Collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art." Asianart.com, March 20'10(nttp:lwww.asiana ).

"The Posthumous Portrait of Hadrat Jannat Ashiyànr. Dynastic, Saintly, and Literary lmagery in theTomb of Humayun." lslamic Att 6 (2OOg): 129-58.

"Humayun's Sojourn at the Safavid Court." Proceedings of the 5'n Conference of fhe Sociefaslranologica Europea, held in Ravenna, 6-11 October 2003, ed. Antonio Panaino and Riccardo

Laura Parodi

Zipoli. Milan, 2006, ll: 135-57.

(in ftalian) "Distorsions and Destructions in the Restoration of Architecture in Central Asia." Archeologie:Studi in onore diTiziano Mannoni, ed. Nicola Cucuzza and Maria Medri. S. Spirito (Bari), 2006: 497-9.

(in ltalian) entries "Subcontinente Indiano," "Daulatabad" and "Fatehpur Sikri." EnciclopediaArcheologica, Rome, 2005.

"Some Observations on the Conception of Landscape and Garden in Timurid Miniature Painting and itsLegacy in Mughal India." XlV. Túrk Tarih Kongresi (Ankara, 9-13 Eylúl 2002) - Kongreye SunulanBildiriler. Ankara, 2005, l: 241-8,

(ed., with Gabriella Airaldi and Paola Mortari Vergara Caffarelli, in ltalian), I Mongoli dal Pacifico alMediterraneo. Also contributed (in ltalian) "The Mongol and Altaic Legacy in Muslim Central Asia."Genoa, 2004: 241-58.

(in ltalian) "lslamic Blue-and-White Ceramic with Chinoiserie motifs: a Survey of Recent Findings." AffiXXXV Convegno lnternazionale della Ceramica. Firenze, 2003:45-52.

"Architecture and Arts of the Indian Timurids." The Turks, ed. Halil inalgik and Yusuf Halaco$lu. Ankara,2002, ll: 1008-15.

(in ltalian) "Mirak-i Sayyid Ghiyas and Sayyid Muhammad-i Mirak: Two Timurid Architects in 16th-Century India." Oriente & Occidente: Convegno in ricordo di Mario Bussagli, ed. Chiara SilviAntonini, Bianca Maria Alfieri and Arcangela Santoro. Pisa-Rome, 2002:176-92.

"Solomon, the Messenger and the Throne: Themes from a Mughal Tomb." Easf & West 5111-2 (2001):127-42.

"The Distilled Essence of the Timurid Spirif: Some Observations on the Taj Mahal." Easf & West 5011-4(2000): 535-42

"A Creative Dialogue: The Timurid and Indo-Muslim Heritage in Akbar's Tomb." Rivista degli StudiOrientali 7 411 -4 (2000): 91 -107 .

(in ltalian) "Some Observations on the Decoration of the 'Turkish Sultana's House' in Fatehpur-Sikri."Haft Qalam. Cento pagine in onore di Bianca Maria Alfieri da parte dei suoi allievi. Naples, 2000:51-68.

"The Bibi-ka Maqbara in Aurangabad. A Landmark of Mughal Power in the Deccan?" East & West 48 |3-a (r998): 349-83.

Recent Book Reviews:

Navina Najat Haidar and Marika Sardar (eds.), Su/fans of the South: Arts of lndia's Deccan Courts,1 323-1 687 (London, 2012).

Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Sfudies 7612 (2013) (in press).

H. Philon (ed.), S/enf Splendour: Palaces of the Deccan, 1Sth - 19k Centuries (Mumbai, 2010). Bulletinof the School of Oriental and African Sfudies 74-2 (2011): 330-332.

D.F. Ruggles, lslamic Gardens and Landscapes (Philadelphia, 2008). Journal of Islamic Studies 21(2010): 439-443.

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